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Two workers have been injured in the alleged splashing of hot water at the DRH SRU unit of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) in Visakhapatnam, police said.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police said that due to hot water splashing at the DRH SRU unit of HPCL, two workers of the HPCL were injured on Friday afternoon. "Both of them have been shifted to the hospital. The cause of the incident is not yet known," the DCP added. A local person named Dharmendra alleged that there are many safety lapses in the HPCL company. "At least two or three incidents are reported every year in HPCL. Still, the 1997 and 2013 accidents are before our eyes. Many times we made complaints against the HPCL and Coramandal companies," he said. There are lakhs of people residing around the HPCL Refinery Company and thousands of defence employees along with Visakhapatnam locals residing in Malakapuram, Sriharipuram, Sindya and Old Gajuwaka areas, but still, officials failed to take proper safety measures. One of the residents says that his family ran away and climbed a nearby hill after the 1997 mishap. In 1997, explosions in six LPG tanks in Hindustan Petroleum's Visakhapatnam refinery were so devastating that 70 people were killed and dark clouds engulfed the city. During the investigation, it was found that a gas leak a few months earlier in a pipeline hadn't been repaired properly, which led to the accident. In 2013, 28 people lost their lives after the HPCL cooling tower blast and fire. One was an HPCL employee out of 28 and the rest were contract workers. In 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021 and now 2024, these accidents were repeated in HPCL. One worker was killed and at least 40 others were injured in an explosion that occurred in an under-construction cooling tower at Hindustan in a 2018 accident. (ANI)
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